Muscat: A United Arab Emirates-based user of dubizzle, a popular classified website in the Middle East, sold a Boeing 747 by giving an advertisement in the website.

Addressing the media to announce a major marketing initiative to promote the website here on Thursday, Abdallah Touqan, communications manager of dubizzle, said the aircraft was sold at a price of 203 million dirhams. However, he declined to give more details about the deal.

Highlighting the popularity of the website, Touqan also said that a super-luxury Bugatti car was sold by another user by giving a classified advertisement in the popular website.

Dubizzle has started refocusing on Oman with a series of advertisement campaigns to create awareness on the advantages of the site. The initiative titled 'it's worth more than you think' tackles the emotional side of the prevalent culture of ownership.

The campaign aims at educating the people of Oman about the benefits of using classifieds and to instil in their minds that 'letting go' of their unused items and passing them on to someone else who needs them more will only add value to the community they live in.

Addressing the media to announce the campaign, Tariq Zabian, general manager of emerging markets, said; "We want to show fellow residents of Oman that anyone with Internet connection can make a difference. By trading their unused items and passing them on to someone else who needs them, they will benefit others and at the same time make extra cash. These items can be anything, from baby clothes to mobile phones to cars."

"We aim to enable everyone to help build a second hand economy."

He said the website, which is the market leader in the United Arab Emirates and has been in operation for the last three-and-a-half years in the Sultanate, is growing in popularity with 15,500 Omani users advertising every month.

Zabian said there has been a phenomenal growth in Internet usage in the Sultanate in the recent past – from merely three per cent in 2000 to 68 per cent in 2014, which is a major factor that makes the website popular. "Internet usage in Oman has grown faster when compared to many other countries."

Zabian also noted that most of the advertisement from the Sultanate is for cars, jobs and property. Around 60,700 users searched for property for rent within the past three months in Oman.

"We want to target different areas and there is a huge potential in Oman market," he added, adding that the country's population has touched 4 million.

The 'it's worth more than you think' message is aligned with dubizzle's vision to disrupt consumer exploitation, and this latest effort goes some way to proving dubizzle's commitment to the cause in Oman.

When citizens trade items they no longer need or use; the overall supply in the market increases. This leads to lower prices, increasing the quantity of trade and keeping money in the local economy. In addition, as the local residents sell their unused goods, they have more money to buy what they really want. This increase in demand expands market price and quantity, as well as creating even more local trade.

"Everyone is encouraged to join the movement and take a look at the items they have stashed away, which they no longer need and post them on dubizzle," Zabian added.

Touqan said the website has a strong customer support team to check and clear each and every advertisement posted on the site.

The website's plan is to make it popular in Oman and it would not charge anything from corporate houses in that advertise in the website initially. However, in the UAE, its main source of revenue is from corporate advertisers.

Headquartered in the UAE, dubizzle.com is available in Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates.